Advisory Committee on Research, Impact and Strategy

The Advisory Committee on Research, Impact and Strategy (ACRIS) is an independent body which meets every five years. ACRIS provides advice on future research directions to the Institute’s Board of Directors and senior management. Its membership comprises highly respected individuals who have influenced health and medical research, or have shaped health policy and practice globally.

The last meeting of the Committee was held in February 2018. Within the scope of the Institute’s mission as well as the Institute’s ambition to ‘make a difference’ and to have a major impact on health policy and practice worldwide, the Committee’s members helped:

guide and assist the Institute in identifying key health challenges globally, over the next 5 – 20 years

reviewed the Institute’s current and planned areas of focus and its activities, in terms of impact or potential for impact, on the identified key health challenges

made recommendations, regarding the best strategies for the Institute to pursue, to maximize its future impact on these challenges.

Professor Garry Jennings AO

Executive Director at Sydney Health Partners

Professor Jennings is Executive Director of Sydney Health Partners. He was the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. From January 2016 he was interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Adviser of the National Heart Foundation of Australia. He presently continues in the latter role and carries out research and clinical activities at Baker IDI and The Alfred Hospital.

He is past President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institute, the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia, the Asia Pacific Society of Hypertension and Head of a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Cardiovascular Health. He is a Board member of Ballarat Health Services, Nucleus Network and the Cardiac Society of Australia & New Zealand. He is a Trustee of the Baker Foundation and of the Foundation for High Blood Pressure Research

A cardiologist, he has a distinguished career in clinical practice and was previously Director of Cardiology at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne and Chair of the Division of Medicine.

He was foundation Chair of Nucleus Network Ltd and AMREP Council. He has been a Board member of the National Heart Foundation of Australia, Research Australia and several start up biotechnology companies.

Mr Martin Bowles PSM

NCEO, Calvary Health Care

Martin Bowles is the National Chief Executive Office of Calvary Health Care, taking up his appointment in November of 2017.

Martin Bowles PSM was previously Secretary of the Department of Health since October 2014. He led reforms in primary health care and mental health service arrangements, access to medical and pharmaceutical benefits, aged care, hospital funding and digital health.

Prior to this Mr Bowles was the Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. He also held the positions of Deputy Secretary in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, and the Department of Defence, respectively. In 2012 Mr Bowles was awarded a Public Service Medal for delivering highly successful energy efficiency policies and remediation programmes for the Home Insulation and Green Loans programmes. Mr Bowles held senior executive positions in the railways, education and health portfolios in the state government public sector, prior to joining the Commonwealth Public Service.

Katie Dain

Chief Executive Officer (London), NCD Alliance

Katie has worked with the NCD Alliance since its founding in 2009; her experience has included organizational and strategic development; global advocacy and policy-making; and program design and capacity-building in low- and middle-income countries.

Katie is widely recognised as a leading advocate and expert on NCDs, and has authored or co-authored numerous papers and commentaries on global health and development policy issues. She is a member of advisory groups and committees for a range of international NCD initiatives, including being a member of the Lancet Commission on Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries of the Poorest Billion. Before joining the NCD Alliance, Katie worked at the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Brussels, leading their global advocacy programme and establishing the first Women and Diabetes programme. Prior to that she held a series of policy posts in the UK Government and UK-based health and development NGOs, including Gender Policy Adviser to the UK Government Equalities Office (GEO) where she was responsible for strategy and policy on violence against women; Womankind Worldwide, a women’s rights organisation; and Terrence Higgins Trust, a HIV and sexual health charity.

Katie has a Master’s degree in Violence, Conflict and International Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.

Dr Shahid Jameel

Chief Executive Officer at The Wellcome Trust / DBT India Alliance

Shahid Jameel is Chief Executive Officer of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance since April 2013. He did his PhD in Biochemistry from Washington State University (USA) and his postdoctoral work in Molecular Virology from the University of Colorado Medical School (USA).

Prior to joining India Alliance, Shahid was Group Leader of Virology at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (New Delhi, India) for over 25 years, where his research focused on the hepatitis E virus and HIV. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and has served on various review and advisory committees of the Government of India and WHO. His research was funded through internal funds from ICGEB and extramural grants from the Government of India, an International Senior Research Fellowship of the Wellcome Trust (UK) and an International Research in Infectious Disease grant from the National Institutes of Health (USA).

Shahid received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Medical Sciences, which is India’s highest mid-career research award. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India.

Professor Anne Mills

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Anne Mills is Deputy Director and Provost of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Professor of Health Economics and Policy. She has degrees from Oxford University (MA), Leeds University (Diploma), and London University (PhD).

After 2 years as Overseas Development Institute Fellow and Economist in the Ministry of Health in Malawi, she spent 3 years at the University of Leeds studying health planning in the NHS, and moved to the LSHTM in 1979. She has researched and published widely in the fields of health economics and health systems in low and middle income countries and continues to be involved in research on financial protection in South Africa, Tanzania, India and Thailand. She has had continuing involvement in supporting capacity development in health economics in universities, research institutes and governments. She has been involved in numerous policy initiatives including WHO's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health and the 2009 High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Finance for Health Systems.

She has a CBE for services to medicine, is a Foreign Associate of the US Institute of Medicine, and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2009 she received the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of medicine. In 2013, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2015, she was made a Dame in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours, for services to international health.

Professor Karen Sliwa-Hahnle

Director, The Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa

MD

PhD

FESC

FACC

DTM & H

Prof. Karen Sliwa is the Director of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa (www.hatter.uct.ac.za), University of Cape Town, South Africa. Born in Germany, studying Medicine, undergoing training as a physician and cardiologist in a number of countries, she lives in South Africa since 1992.

Cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and postpartum is one of her main areas of clinical and pathophysiological research. Recent progress in understanding underlying pathophysiology of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy, enabled by novel experimental approaches interlinked with unique international efforts has led to great progress in awareness and management of the disease. In order to coordinate efforts even better, a Study Group, ‘Peripartum Cardiomyopathy’, of the Heart Failure Association of the European Cardiac Society, chaired by her and others was formed in 2009. That has led to a large international registry under the EuroObservational Programe on Peripartum Cardiomyopathy.

She established a population study in Africa called the ‘Heart of Soweto Study’ to investigate the prevalence, presentation and management of cardiac disease in an urban African population. This study, on more than 8000 patients, highlighted the high prevalence of hypertension, obesity and cardiac disease in women of childbearing age. She has recently expanded her population studies ( under the umbrella of the ‘Heart of Africa studies’) to other African countries, including Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Sudan. She has designed a number of innovative research programs and leveraged funding for several major research projects, not only in South Africa and the rest of Africa, but also internationally. She has published more than 230 Articles and her work is highly cited.

In recognition of her work Prof Sliwa has received several awards, including the South Africa/Germany Year of Science Celebrations Award (2012), German Cardiac Society Paul Morawitz Award for Exceptional Cardiovascular Research (2013) and the CPP award (2014) and the Africa’s most influential women in Business & Government life-time award (2015 and 2016).

Karen Sliwa serves on a number of editorial boards and is also an editorial consultant to ‘The Lancet’. Furthermore, she is former president of the South African Heart Association and on the board of the South African Heart Failure Society (http://www.hefssa.org), which was established under her leadership in 2005. She is president-elect of the World Heart Federation (2017-2019), serves on the European Cardiac Society International Affairs Committee and is board member of the Pan African Society of Cardiology. She is now the Faculty of Health Science Deputy Dean for Research until the end of the year (2017).

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan

President of the National University of Singapore

Prof Tan Chorh Chuan is President of the National University of Singapore. He concurrently serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National University Health System; Deputy Chairman of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research; member, Board of Directors of the Monetary Authority of Singapore; and of Mandai Park Holdings.

Professor Tan will join the Ministry of Health (MOH) as Executive Director of the new MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation on 1 January 2018. He will concurrently be appointed MOH’s Chief Health Scientist.

Prof Tan is a key leader in Singapore's Biomedical Sciences Initiative since its inception in 2000, for which he was awarded the National Science and Technology Medal in 2008. He also received the Public Service Star in 2003 for outstanding contributions to overcoming SARS in Singapore; the Public Administration Gold Medal in 2004 for his work as Director of Medical Services in the Ministry of Health; and the Meritorious Service Medal in 2015. Other awards include the 2015 Asia-Pacific Leadership Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education; the Dr John Yu Medal from the George Institute for Global Health, Australia; the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal from the Polish Academy of Medicine; Honorary Doctor of Medicine from King's College; Honorary Doctor of Science from Duke University; Honorary Doctor of Science from Loughborough University; Achievement Medal from the Singapore Society of Nephrology and the 1996 Singapore Youth Award.

Prof Tan is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global University Leaders Forum, which he chaired for a 2-year term. He is the first Singaporean to be elected as an international member of the US National Academy of Medicine.